


Hellsing's bestiary

by thiefofbluefire



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Monster Hunters, Angel! Reaper, Gremlin! D.va, Hunter McCree, Multi, Oni Genji, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Platonic Relationships, Vampires, Werewolves, Witch doctor! Doomfist, oni hanzo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 10:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13234023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thiefofbluefire/pseuds/thiefofbluefire
Summary: "What are you still doing here? Enough trembling in your boots. A hunter must hunt."-Eileen the crow.





	Hellsing's bestiary

**Author's Note:**

> Entry 1: Angels.
> 
> Ancient celestial beings in service to the God of the Hebrew, Christian, and Judaic religions.
> 
> Identifiable features: humanoid forms, large feathered wings, distant, almost cold, demeanors. Not friendly.
> 
> Notes:  
> Most angels stay up in their realm with the lord for a reason. I'm sure that it's a good reason, but they haven't been very forthcoming with it.
> 
> \--V.

The evening air is warm. Trees aren't bristling because of any unsavory wind. Quiet, save for the sounds of footfalls and the occasional jingle of the crosses dangling from his ears. Wouldn't be the best night ever to stretch his wings, but it's a great one for camping in the woods.  
Gabriel has fond memories of the boy's childhood; always begging to have a fire pit in a circle of rocks so the two of them could roast whatever they'd caught at ungodly hours of the morning. Singing songs until the boy fell asleep to dream about Gabriel's black wings.  
He allows himself a sigh and a smile at the memory, then it turns bitter and he he feels his chest tighten, resolve hardening.

"It's a shame that Van doesn't know how good of a man his son has grown into." Gabriel thinks. His mother did her best, but ol' Van was a continent away when she died. Hasn't come back since Gabriel sent the letter of her death to him. Occasionally he wonders what happened to the ace hunter; the man who burned the world's most powerful vampire and scattered the ashes to never be recovered.  
There was never a day when little Jesse didn't ask about the man.

"Do I look like 'im? Do I sound like 'im?  
Could he ever do this?"

Gabriel tightens his grip on the satchel he's carrying, thinking of the small wooden pistol inside; carved for the boy with the love and care that an angel didn't know he still had.

"When you get bigger, you can have a real one, Jesse. But for now, you can practice with this."

He presses on, quickening his pace until he sees the white hands.

An angel has nothing to fear from Japan's suicide forest, nor of the broken and restless spirits that stand and circle around him. Their faces are a mix of shock and hurt before they turn hopeful in his presence. He's always had that affect on ghosts, regardless of who they were in life.

He swaps his tongue to Japanese, explaining that he's looking for someone alive in the woods. He doesn't know exactly what they look like, so he offers the vague description of an immense man with dark skin that smells like bamboo and bone powder. Some of the spirits disperse because they don't know what he's looking for. Others look among each other before stepping aside to form a path. In it's center is the twitching essence of a young warrior with a long and deep cut in his belly. He scrutinizes Gabriel before stepping back a few paces and looking down.  
Gabriel kneels down where the spirit is referring to and feels the dirt with his hand. There, pressed into the soil, is a foot print. Gabriel's target isn't wearing shoes, and the tracks are fresh.  
He thanks the spirits for their aid with a prayer for their souls to find their way out of the forest and then sprints along the trail. His feet are heavy on the ground and his earrings are flailing wildly. The path is barely visible in the shadows of the trees, and Gabriel has to swerve and jump to escape fallen foliage and tree trunks. He stops running, fearing that he's lost the trail when he sees a dull light in the trees.  
He breathes in and out, rubbing the sweat off his brow.

"That's not the forest edge," he thinks to himself as he heads towards it. When he gets closer, he can smell burning wood, cooking meat, and sake. Lots of it.  
He brushes off his pants and straightens his hat as he ducks under a branch and finds himself in a clearing.  
A bonfire burns with the smell of pine, sitting on a log next to it is a young figure with skin like charcoal and milky eyes. He's wearing loose pants and sandals. Next to him on the log is a tiny female creature with pointed ears and brown, braided hair.  
It seems he's startled them both, as the girl drops her meat when she jumps in her seat. The demon... No, the Oni, has a wakizashi in hand and is standing up slowly, gauging for an attack. Gabriel hears the sound of a bowstring being drawn back and he puts his hands up in a placating gesture.

"Hang on there," he says in quick Japanese. "I am not here to hunt. I need a witch doctor, and I was told that he'd come into the forest."

The girl, a gremlin is what she is, tilts her head questioningly, as if she doesn't know what Gabriel is saying.

"He's called Ogundimu, do you know him?" Gabriel continues, looking around for where the archer could be.

"What would an angel need with a witch doctor?"

The voice is behind him somewhere. It's smooth in the way a demon's voice is, and Gabriel assumes that it's another Oni. That would explain why he's addressing Gabriel as 'angel' and not 'hunter'.

"That's between me and the witch doctor, demon. Now where is he? Angels are known for their immortality, not their patience."

The warm evening air turns cold in their presence, he can feel a ghost of a wind in the fine hairs on the back of his neck, and he can feel the tension in the bowstring just begging to be let loose.  
Time stops for a moment before a wretched screech howls out of the shadows behind the Oni and his gremlin companion.  
Gabriel leaps out of the way as a sickly white face comes circling through the clearing. It swerves towards Gabriel and he bats it away from him with an outstretched wing. There's a prick and a whistle as a red arrow sails through the air, grazing Gabriel's wing and hitting the screaming head between the eye sockets. The sound dies with a bit of a pop as though the head was a harmless bubble.  
Out of the shadows marches the archer. He's clad in a white gi, with his black hair tied up with a silver ribbon. His left arm is exposed and he has a fiery demon tattooed over his heart. He stoops down with his right hand where the head was circling and plucks a flawless, black feather from the dirt.  
And Gabriel realizes that his wings are showing.  
He tucks them tight to his back as the archer gives the feather a look over. It's longer than an owls feather, and probably worth enough coin to replenish all the sake that was poured into the ground here.  
The Oni raises an eyebrow in Gabriel's direction, maybe coming to the same realization.

"It's yours if you tell me where Ogundimu is." Gabriel offers.

The Oni starts a little, but it doesn't show on his face. He gives the feather another once over and nods sharply to the Oni by the bonfire. The archer hands it over to his companion and beckons Gabriel to his side as the Oni with the blade goes back to roasting meat with the gremlin girl. Gabriel hears them complaining about dirty food in Korean.

The archer leads Gabriel past bones tangled up in the roots of trees, into a very much dead area of the forest. It's a stranger example of humanity's self destructive tendencies, these suicide woods. Gabriel wonders why the witch doctor would come to such a place. He's not an exorcist, not from what Gabriel's heard of him, and even if he was, surely he wouldn't be trying to set all the trapped souls here free. It's a fool's errand.  
Gabriel's also pretty sure that Ogundimu isn't a necromancer either. Maybe he's a conjurer? That would be a reasonable excuse to keep Oni in his company. But then what's the gremlin for?  
There just wasn't enough information about the witch doctor up front and Gabriel was in a rush.

He hears something large breathing not far away and it brings him out of his thoughts. Gabriel does a double take as he's presented with the form of a resting rhino.  
She's big and tan, and she has a green blanket draped over her back. Her ears flick about when they approach and she raises her head to look at her new company.  
The archer walks up to her with ease, murmuring a fond greeting with a pat on her cheek as he passes by. She looks at Gabriel the way a lawman eyes up a suspect for a moment, but Gabriel keeps focused on the Oni. He's lead past a carriage that's not far from the rhino towards a tent.  
Gabriel can smell incense burning from inside, and what light is coming from the tent is quite dim. The Oni stops a good three meters away from the tent and he doesn't venture further.

"Ogundimu is within, angel," the archer says in perfect English as he ushers Gabriel towards the tent with an arrow. "Whatever business you have with him, I care not. So get it done and be gone."

The Oni doesn't turn around until Gabriel is grabbing hold of the flap and putting his foot inside the tent. At first Gabriel thinks it's because the incense are bothering him, but another screaming head comes charging towards the rhino from the shadows. Gabriel sees him shoot an arrow into it before he lets the tent flap close behind him.

"It's not the incense, he's just standing guard," Gabriel thinks before he turns to the sole inhabitant of the tent.

 

The reputation of one Akande Ogundimu is full of mixed messages, but that's sorta expected when it comes to witch doctors. Gabriel's heard tall tales of an immense man with dark skin and white body paint banishing the evils of the land as well as plagues and robbers. He's also known for being trouble in taverns and being a mediocre street magician and potion salesman.  
Stories to be sure, but all fiction has some foundation in reality.

Point is, Gabriel isn't sure what to expect. Certainly not seven feet of pure African muscle sprawled out on his back like a starfish, naked as the day he was born.  
The angel feels his face heat up and he's really not sure what to do with the witch doctor staring up at Gabriel from his position on the ground.  
Ogundimu blinks, bemused.

"Hanzo," the witch doctor calls, not to Gabriel. "What did you just let into my tent?"

Gabriel can hear a loud, deep voiced cackle coming from outside. It's comparable to a memory Gabriel has of a teenager out at ungodly hours of the night giggling like a fool after an hour of cow tipping.  
He remembers himself and makes a point of maintaining eye contact with Ogundimu.

"Umm, I can come back," Gabriel says as he puts his foot back towards the flap of the tent, both out of an awkward want to give the witch doctor some privacy while he sorted himself out, as well as a miffed urge to fly out and discipline a demon. Painfully.

Gabriel doesn't get far though. Ogundimu is already sitting up and reaching for a leopard skin shawl.

"No no no, one second," he says, draping the garment over his legs. "There. Now."  
Ogundimu blinks again, looking Gabriel over.  
"What brings a hunter like you to a place like this?"

"What brings a witch doctor to Japan's infamous suicide forest?" Gabriel frowns, composed.

"Ah that?" Ogundimu chuckles. It's a warm one, and he beckons Gabriel to sit with him.  
"I am settling a bet with another demon, you see. He said that I could not survive three days in this forest. I am making him Owe me by surviving four."

"And the demons outside?" The angel asks.

"Well... He didn't say I had to survive alone..."

The two hear a colorful bark of "foolish wolf" from the still chuckling Oni outside.

"Yes... foolish wolf," The witch doctor clears his throat before addressing Gabriel again.  
"Anyway, you did not answer my question. What would YOU be doing in a place like this?"

Gabriel pauses, feels the little weight in his satchel, and he sits with his legs crossed.

"I'm... Looking for someone." He says, reluctant.

Ogundimu breathes deep, and Gabriel subconsciously does that too. It's calming.

"I know that being vague and mysterious is something of a calling card of the angels," the witch doctor begins. "But I know that the divine messenger is more blunt and honest than his brethren. So please, feel free to be yourself."

Gabriel blinks, somewhat surprised that Ogundimu knew exactly who he was, and he wasn't the one who'd shot his wing.  
The effect wears off and Gabriel purses his lips before continuing, less reluctant.

"He's a hunter from the circle. American, last seen in Switzerland."

"And you cannot search for him yourself because...?" Ogundimu inquires.

"Because..." Gabriel puts a hand on the satchel. "Because I'm... Afraid of what might have to happen."

The witch doctor tilts his head, interested.  
"Do explain, what would have to happen?"

Gabriel pauses to collect his thoughts. He doesn't want to admit his fears out loud - neither angels nor hunters should show that they can BE afraid - but this particular witch doctor would probably not be willing to make the journey from Japan to Switzerland otherwise.

"Here's the thing, Ogundimu, he's a very special person. A good hunter and a good man. That being said, he's been missing for some time."

"How much time?"

Gabriel scrunches his nose a bit.  
"Four weeks, give or take. I was expecting him to be back in America by last Sunday. When he wasn't, I guess I got worried."

Ogundimu folds his hands together, resting his elbows on his knees.

"I feel like this is something of a, 'stupid question', but what was he doing in Switzerland?" The witch doctor asks, polite but wary.

"Werewolf. Biggest one in Europe," Gabriel sniffs and thumbs the bridge of his nose. "My boy heard about it, bought a boat ticket, sailed over." He looks off to the side, wondering if the Oni is listening. The creature's gone deathly quiet.

"And?"

Gabriel looks back to the witch doctor.  
"And.. I heard that he mounted the thing's head on the wall of the local tavern. Just above the fireplace. He was supposed to come straight back to his home town after.."

Ogundimu hums as he sits taller.  
"So what is it that makes him special?"

"What?"

"You said that he was a 'very special' person. Now, killing Europe's largest werewolf is quite a feat, don't get me wrong, but I have a feeling that is not quite what you meant by 'special'."

Gabriel tightens his grip on the straps to the satchel. The tiny wooden pistol is lead on his shoulder, the words are stuck in his mouth like sap, turning to amber. He can easily picture the boy as he was when he left; all shaggy hair combed back into a ponytail with his mother's hat sitting on his head. Cocky grin and tan skin that he inherited from his father with a coat and gear that the old hunter would be proud of.

Gabriel isn't sure which one he misses more.

"His name, is Jesse McCree," he says, finally. "Only son of Van Hellsing."

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New year.


End file.
